Starting a new-to-me Setup. What to do before water?

[Rover88]

Hey all,

I came across a local deal for a 75 gallon drilled aquarium with a homebuilt stand.

I'm putting an eshopps R300 2nd gen refugium under it.

It has two standpipes already in it for the overflow, and the plumbing in place for the return.

Someone retired it years back, and I'm picking it up.




I know a lot of you have done your own home builds and probably had regrets of 'I wish I did this' before putting it all together and adding rocks/water. I want to learn from this experience and not make those mistakes!

At the moment, my current plans are painting the back of the tank black and the interior of the stand high gloss white for light for the refugium/sump.

Everything needs a very, very thorough cleaning.

Equipment:
- Vertex 130 protein skimmer (from the seller)
- Maxspect 420R 300W (from the seller)

I need a heater still (to go in the sump) and likely a few other things that I haven't listed.

I intend to be cannibilizing my 30 gallon starter setup down the road, once this is all set up. I'm not rushing into getting it going, cause I want it to be right. I have a RO/DI unit that is gonna take a loooong time to fill this tank, once I start trying, but it'll do the trick.

 

[MurphyLong]

Wise choice to not rushing it. I felt like I was taking my time on setting up my current tank, and even spreading out over a few months wasn't long enough.

Once I got it all plumbed and where I wanted it, I went ahead and added water, just to find out my bulkheads leaked... Drained it and replaced them (which meant cutting PVC I had cemented.)

Went back and filled it all again, and the supporting board under my sump cracked, and my sump can only go in/out through the TOP of the stand. Drained, disconnected plumbing (didn't cement it this time!) and fixed the board.

Refilled tank. All leak tests passed! Let it run with just tap water for a few days, just dialing the heaters to make sure everything was where it needed to be, and then drained and filled with RO/Saltwater, cemented under-tank plumbing, and let it run for over a week, and found out stand was starting to "creep" under pressure, putting pressure on the stand doors. Removed doors, reinforced stand, shaved doors and replaced.

Hooked up skimmer (which tested fine in tap water) but now the pump was not turning in SW. Disassembled, couldn't fix it, and replaced with another pump.

I'll stop with the nightmare stories of setting up and skip to NOW, and the tank is up and running happily... In hindsight, I would have made changes to the stand to allow me to replace the sump easier, because now I want a bigger one, and can't do it without taking down the whole thing, or some REAL creative ingenuity.

I wish I had skipped the durso drains and gone for a Herbie style drain, but it's not worth the effort of changing it now, unless I'm ready to redo the plumbing (again) in which case, I'd be making my changes to the stand at the same time to swap the sump for something larger. (at least longer.)

 

[Rover88]

snip

Good lord! Yeah, that doesn't sound like a fun time.

This stand is way over-engineered it looks like, especially for the 75 gallon tank (Sump is 40 gallons'ish) that its going to be holding. Its made with braced 4x4's. Though I intend to go over it carefully!

Its an Aqueon Maxflow, which I think means it was meant for a durso drain and a return in the same corner, but I'm using it as a herbie style setup, with the return coming in on its own PVC on the other side.

I've never plumbed before, and I'm hoping I don't need to change toooo much of whats already there, but Id rather do it right first time around then later.

But yeah, hopefully my experience goes smoother then that!

 

[Rover88]

The setup is required!

Skimmer, carbon reactor, gfo reactor, maxxspect 420R LED light, and some MP10s. Lots of new toys to learn and play with! As well as a bunch of 'new' rock, and a bunch of new to me toys that some of which I've yet to identify.

Because the old plumbing was glued into the tank bulkheads, and then mounted in such a way they'd never come out of the stand with it on, I had to cut out the old plumbing. So I get to replumb everything, which was the plan anyway, and get the sump laid out how I want.

 

[mbh7848]

keep me updated on the paint job on the stand. I just moved into a house with a existing tank and im about to paint mine as well.

 

[Rover88]

I only painted the interior of the stand.

I did a double coat of Kilz primer, and a double coat of latex white high gloss paint.

It was straight over 4x4 and some kind of particle board with a nice finish. I left the outside plain.

I kinda rushed it, cause the only plan on painting in the end was just for a white surface in the sump and a surface that wouldn't wick up water. Aside from a couple of points on the bottom (The bottom was melamine(sp?)) it seemed to take very well!

I wound up getting some caulk as well, and caulked the bottom seams so water wouldn't sneak away on me on the off chance it started to leak down there or anything.